The story of Select-a-Press began in the mid-eighties, when Pastor Gerald Mann founded Riverbend Church, and built a new sanctuary in Austin, TX. Mann’s outspoken musical tastes were adamant in that there would be no “wheezy old church organ” in the new sanctuary. Instead, he preferred a Brass Quintet to serve in that role. Thus, the Riverbend Brass would perform every Sunday for the next twenty-plus years. Much music would be needed to fulfill the needs of providing “Pre-game” music, support for the Choir anthems, music for the offering, and “Post-game” as well. The assignment to provide hundreds of new arrangements for Brass Quintet (later augmented by a rhythm section, strings, and woodwinds, and more) fell upon a grateful Gary Slechta.  

Members of the Riverbend Brass were largely from the Austin Symphony, led musically by Principal Trumpet Bernie Nero. Having formally trained backgrounds did not impede their enjoyment of performing diverse up-beat styles of Gospel, Latin, salsa, swing, and hard-driving “God-rock,” under the enthusiastic leadership of Music Director Carlton Dillard. The congregation heartily endorsed the up-beat presentations every Sunday morning, and Riverbend Church soon joined the ranks of one of the nation’s mega-churches, services being nationally televised for years.

As the library of Brass Quintet arrangements grew, many musicians felt that they were deserving of publication, to be shared with groups around the nation. In 1994, Shawnee Press produced a CD of the Riverbend Brass, publishing and selling twenty of Slechta’s arrangements. Southern Music published additional titles.

In the late nineties came the music publication program Finale®, and the advent of desk-top publishing. The Slechtas bought a program, and Anne Slechta quickly learned to use it, filling the weekly needs of Riverbend Church. Gary would continue writing the arrangements using pencil and paper, and Anne would enter them on Finale.

Eventually, all of Gary’s quintet arrangements would be made available, and the website www.selectapress.com was born. Sales were brisk and received a significant boost in 2008 when LA trumpeter Wayne Bergeron decided to record a CD featuring fifteen of Gary’s titles. Another Christmas CD is planned.